Google Targets Its Sights On Gaming, Hires Noah Falstein As Chief Game Designer

Google has its hands in every other aspect of the tech industry, so why not gaming, too? It appears as though the company is eyeing a run at the gaming market by hiring Noah Falstein as its “Chief Game Designer”.

Falstein’s LinkedIn profile has been updated to reflect his new title, which is the latest in a long career. He started out in 1980 and put in time at (the recently-defunct) Lucasfilm Games as well as 3DO and Dreamworks Interactive. This, in addition to a chairmanship with the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), a column in Game Developer Magazine, consulting work with The Inspiracy , and international speaking engagements.

It’s anyone’s guess what Google is up to here. The Google Play store does not want for gaming titles, and it’s not like Google has a console brewing that we know of. However, Google does have a developing crop of devices, from the solid Nexus tablets to Google Glass and the probable Google smartwatch, so it’s possible that the company may want to do some developing for those.

Falstein also dabbles in “Serious Games”, which he defines as "Using Games, Game Technology, or Game Industry Techniques for a purpose other than pure entertainment”; if that’s the area of expertise and interest that Google is after with this hire, we could be in for some very interesting developments.